Hippolais polyglotta

Order

Family

BTO 2

BTO 5

Euring 5

ILLUSTRATION

PHOTOS

CONSERVATION STATUS

UK Conservation Status

European Conservation Status

Conservation Description

The Melodious Warbler is a scarce migrant to the UK, Isle of Man, and Ireland with around 30 records per year on average. It is most likely to occur during migration. The conservation status for this species is "not assessed' in the UK because it only occurs as a rare migrant, and is not globally threatened.

Range and Habitat

Melodious Warbler: Found in southwest Europe and northwest Africa during the summer; winters in West Africa. A scarce but regular annual migrant in the UK where it has occurred in many regions, usually during spring and fall migration. The Melodious Warbler prefers forest edge, gardens, and other open woodland habitats.

SONGS AND CALLS

Voice Text

"too-ee", "eeeeeeezzzzzz", "wee-soo"

INTERESTING FACTS

A group of warblers has many collective nouns, including a "bouquet", "confusion", "fall", and "wrench" of warblers.

Breeding population in Europe is estimated to be between 1,000 and 3,000 breeding pairs.

They move freely over floating vegetation and are able to climb up stems easily

RELATED BIRDS

RANGE MAP

FAMILY DESCRIPTION

Old World Warblers (Sylviidae)

ORDER

The Old World warblers are included in one of the one hundred eighteen families of birds in the order PASSERIFORMES (pronounced pas-ser-i-FOR-meez); a large taxonomic order that includes other small birds such as the kinglets, and large birds such as the crows and jays.

FAMILY TAXONOMY

In the Sylviidae (pronounced sil-VEYE-uh-dee) family, a group with a nearly worldwide distribution, there are two hundred sixty-six species of Old World warblers and gnatcatchers in thirty-three genera, although some authorities split this large family into several smaller families (IOC World Bird List, version 2.3).

EUROPE

In Europe, forty-four species in seven genera of the Sylviidae family have occurred. Counted among these are common species like the Blackcap, Willow Warbler, and Whitethroat, and several vagrants to Europe from Asia such as the Yellow-browed, Pallas’s, and Radde’s Warblers. (It should be noted that an ongoing debate about splitting up the Sylviidae family may greatly reduce the number of species classified as such, thereby reducing the number of European species still so classified as Sylviidae to nineteen in one genus.)

KNOWN FOR

The warblers are known for their active mannerisms and in being small birds that can be very challenging to identify.

PHYSICAL

Members of the Sylviidae are small birds with fairly long legs, and strong feet that suit their arboreal nature. They have thin, medium length bills, rather short wings, and most have somewhat long tails which are rather wedge shaped in the warblers of the Locustella and Acrocephalus genera.

COLORATION

The many members of the Sylviidae are predominantly dull-coloured, difficult to identify birds. Browns and greys are the common colour theme, though some also have black in their plumage. Brighter colours are restricted to reddish or yellow underparts and red eye rings shown by some species. Several of the Sylviidae also show white markings on the face as well as on the wings and tail.

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT

In Europe, the Sylviidae occur just about everywhere except on the highest of mountains and on the northernmost tundra. The many members of this family occupy both deciduous and coniferous forests, Mediterranean scrub, and a variety of wetland habitats.

MIGRATION

Most warbler species are long distance migrants to sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia.

HABITS

The members of the Sylviidae do not nest in colonies but often join mixed species flocks of small birds that forage together for protection from predators. They forage for invertebrates by gleaning them from the vegetation of trees and bushes.

CONSERVATION

In Europe, the most threatened Sylviidae species is the Aquatic Warbler. This wetland species has greatly declined in Europe because its required habitat of waterlogged, sedge meadows are easily and frequently drained. The last stronghold for this species is in eastern Poland and possibly some areas in eastern Russia.

INTERESTING FACTS

Although the plumages of warblers can be confusing for beginning and advanced birders alike, the calls and songs of most species are distinctive and are often a more reliable reference for their identification in the field. As with many birds, the vocalizations of warblers are fairly species specific, a fact that has helped clarify species level classification in this family.

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters
of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus)
and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante
(2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42
(Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported
by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) was established in the mid-1990 s as a cooperative project among several federal agencies to improve and
expand upon taxonomic data (known as the NODC Taxonomic Code) maintained by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA).

To find the ITIS page for a bird species go to the ITIS web site advanced search and report page at http://www.itis.gov/advanced_search.html.
You can enter the TSN or the common name of the bird. It will return the ITIS page for that bird. Another way to obtain the ITIS page is to use
the Google search engine. Enter the string ITIS followed by the taxonomic ID, for example "ITIS 178041" will return the page for the Allen's Hummingbird.